Global Information

We need to develop applications quickly but this alone is not enough. We also need to change them quickly to react to the changes in the business environment. We need to re-use appropriate components so programmers are not wasting time rewriting the same code (except that is never is quite the same code!). PRO-IV with it’s SuperLayer RAD tool provides application wide and cross-application facilities for defining common and re-usable code. It’s novel approach to screen design produces screens with a standard look and feel very quickly and with a very low maintenance overhead when, for example, you need to add an additional field into a series of screen layouts.

PRO-IV QA Filters

Quality in RAD development comes from enforced standardization. It is important to channel the creative energies of developers into solving the problems of delivering a solution to the business problem and not on tinkering with the screen layout, or thinking of terminology or abbreviations for the field prompts. Built in standards organized through a single comprehensive central dictionary linking data items to validation, manipulation, presentation and access information within is one of the keys to PRO-IV success as a RAD environment. To further enhance the quality of delivered systems a new add-on (QA Filters) has been produced to ensure that the same standards have been used throughout the development of an application.

PRO-IV Version Control

Having completed the application it must be distributed. From the largest, most complicated package solution down to the smallest coding shop we need to have information on what code was changed when, who did it, why they did it… and possibly how do we get back to the system we had before? The Version Control component of the PRO-IV toolset allows for this level of control where required.

PRO-IV A Second Generation Client Server Technology

“But to qualify as a second generation tool, a product must be cross-platform, high-performance, scaleable and at least object based if not object oriented. It must also support legacy data and systems, team development and applications partitioning”.

PRO-IV Cross Platform Portability and Functionality

PRO-IV provides a high degree of applications portability without consideration for the target hardware. PRO-IV maintains all system dependent functionality so you don’t have to. PRO-IV provides cross platform capability that allows you to develop business rules and functionality on UNIX and transport those same rules to applications running on anything from DOS/Novel through Windows and Windows NT, across a wide range of DEC and UNIX platforms through the IBM AS/400 and up to the mainframe, all without any changes to the application code. PRO-IV lets you construct your corporate wide client server application to utilize your existing corporate wide hardware base with no restrictions. The power of PRO-IV portability allows the application to be completely decoupled from the computing infrastructure. The choice of operating systems and hardware are completely up to the IT department with the PRO-IV based application capable of transparent portation to the new environment. This permits the IT department to make strategic decisions on hardware, operating systems and database vendors without the constraints of applications restrictions.

PRO-IV Object Based

The basic building blocks of a PRO-IV application are the ‘functions’ each of which contains an individual unit of work or a particular portion or complete transaction. Global windows, reports and logic’s are already widely re-used in PRO-IV. You can easily transport standardized business rules to other applications or offices even if they have a locally customized data format. PRO-IV’s data base dictionary and function architecture assure that that business process will run the same under the new application as it did under the previous system and applications

PRO-IV Applications Partitioning

Applications partitioning is available in PRO-IV this year that will allow you to distribute your application’s executable code to whichever portion of the system that makes the most sense for you. You can design your application on a single system, and deploy it across multiple systems without substantial changes to your code. Simply export the server functionality and let PRO-IV manage the rest of the application partitioning for you. You can now run your reports on the machine where the data is even if you normally run PRO-IV on a completely separate host

PRO-IV Integration of Personal and Corporate Computing Environment

PRO-IV provides a method of integrating the high performance business applications running on the main corporate computing network with the everyday desktop applications running on the personal computer through the use of ‘thin client server’ technology. The PRO-IV Windows client runs on the P.C. with connectivity to the corporate computing network via TCP/IP, be it a UNIX network, IBM AS/400 or DEC Cluster. The PRO-IV application s deployment strategy is to allow the application to run on the corporate network, with presentation on the desktop to allow the IT department to maintain the application and it’s data as part of the corporate network, while allowing individual users access to functionality on the desktop. This presentation on the desk top however does not obsolete the applications back office green screen work environment for high volume data processing activities

PRO-IV connects Business with Information Technology

The desk top deployment of all or a subset of the application allows the IT department to distribute the business services to the department or individual concerned without losing control over the application or infrastructure. This applications delivery to the desk top allows direct business access to the IT technology without the IT overhead associated with producing physical reports or data. Business users can directly access the IT technology themselves from the desktop allowing the IT department to concentrate on the IT Technology and deployment and less on the IT Service aspects of the corporate computing. End users can access corporate Information Technology through tools that they are already familiar with such as the Microsoft Office suite or products integrated into PRO-IV, allowing access to internally soured data as well as with externally soured data to produce a seamlessly integrated and up to the minute customized knowledge base.